Beacon's Olivia Yeaple shows off a tom turkey she bagged during the annual youth hunt. Her father is Richard Yeaple.

Written by

Bill Conners
Poughkeepsie Journal columnist

There are more than 100,000 turkey hunters in the state and when they go afield Wednesday on the opening day of the state's spring turkey season, on average they will have to hunt harder and longer if they expect to fill their tags. New York's turkey flocks are under pressure and it is showing up in the harvest data collected over the last ten years.

The statewide spring harvest in 2003 was 36,800 birds. From 2004-2006, the harvest averaged about 10,000 birds short of 2003. And in 2007 it rose to within 1,200 birds of the starting number. By 2012 the spring harvest had fallen to a smidgen more than ...